Thursday, March 13, 2014

"Save Our Unions"!

If you’re interested in a good read, labor journalist Steve Early just published a new book
called “Save Our Unions.” The book, available from Monthly
Review Press, has chapters with titles like, "A Stewards' Army
Uprising."

One chapter -- “Partnering or Picketing?” -- describes the
giant strikes that 21,000 members of NUHW and CNA recently waged against Kaiser
Permanente. He describes how Purple officials like SEIU-UHW Executive
Board member Shawna Stewart teamed up with Kaiser’s bosses to fight the strikes.

In another chapter called "The Corporate Wellness Scam,"
Early profiles the newest flavor of corporate ripoffs designed by Pepsi and other giant corporations --
which is actively being pushed by SEIU-UHW’s Dave
Regan in partnership with the corporate fatcats. For example, Early describes this
episode:

At Daughters of
Charity, the new "wellness program" negotiated in April 2012 by SEIU’s
United Healthcare Workers-West comes, per usual, with more familiar forms of
cost shifting. Three thousand UHW members at five hospitals will now pay 25
percent of the monthly premiums for PPO coverage that was previously fully paid
by their employer. Out-of-pocket costs for medical plan utilization (doctor
visits, prescriptions, etc.) will double and the premiums of workers who fail
to meet new standards for personal healthiness will be 20 percent higher than
those for their coworkers. To get these concessions approved, UHW conducted a
rushed two-day ratification vote that began less than 12 hours after a
tentative agreement was reached. The SEIU Constitution requires three days'
advance notice of ratification votes; workers at Daughters of Charity got only
nine hours. According to workers who complained, in writing, to SEIU president
Mary Kay Henry, UHW reps refused to provide them with copies of the agreement
they were voting on.

And Early finds hopeful lessons from workers' recent battles:

The goal of
"saving our unions" is best pursued in ecumenical fashion, from the
bottom up, with no false dichotomy between "external” and
"internal" organizing… Wherever the traditional route of union reform
is blocked and workers remain trapped in labor-management relationships that
deprive them of any meaningful, independent voice, a militant minority will
soldier on. Its usual friends and allies will continue to lend a hand because
they know that the magic kingdom of labor-management partnering is no
laboratory for creating a more democratic, inclusive, and social
justice-oriented labor movement. It's far more likely that elements of such a
movement will emerge from worker resistance to company unionism, where the
first glimmers of something better are already visible and inspiring at Kaiser.

About Me

Legal Statement:
Sternburgerwithfries.blogspot.com is a labor union related gossip site which publishes rumors, speculation, assumptions, opinions and conjecture in addition to accurately reported facts. Information on this site may or may not be true and sternburgerwithfries.blogspot.com makes no warranty as to the validity of any claims.
If you think there is false info on this site, email me and we can see what we can do, otherwise, just enjoy!